By : SHWETA BHANOT MEHROTRA
MUMBAI :
Sipping coffee at a suburban café, Pratik Gupta, 37, Founder, Strom Motors, exhibits an unusual confidence in his voice. He begins the conversation with how ARAI and RTO approvals for their three-wheel personal mobility solution, Strom-R3, has led to a confidence return in the market, as makers relook at disrupting the automotive space with new category vehicles. "The need of the hour is to disrupt the market with quality and innovative EVs than wait for government incentives," he says.
An R&D professional with big names such as NASA and US Army on his project experience list, Gupta, returned to India in 2011 and established E14 Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (2012), in Mumbai, an R&D company, working in the areas of sustainable solutions and automation. He moved quickly with his co-founder, Jean-Luc Abaziou, ex-CEO, Alcatel, and by 2016, Strom was born out of an in-house R&D project. Strom Motors is a wholly- owned subsidiary of E14 Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Since then, there has been no looking back for him and the team. "I always wanted to work towards sustainable solutions and its ecosystem. As a technology person, we understand technology at its birth, how it progresses, and we know that barriers have to be taken care of at mass level," he says.
Chuckling, Gupta, points out to a group picture of his core team on the phone, "Their life interests are as colourful as the product itself. We have a guitarist, a gaming freak, a pianist and a yoga champ ... these are people who love life and are passionate about what they are doing," he says. Currently, Strom Motors has ten employees in the core engineering team and around 40 consultants and freelancers. On the production side, they have six full-time employees and an army of contractors.
Gupta, who leads his team of enthusiasts from a plant in Vasai, on the outskirts of Mumbai, is all set to represent India with Strom-R3’s innovative technology, at the upcoming CES 2020 (Consumer Technology Association), the world's largest and most influential technology event, scheduled to be held at Las Vegas, from Jan 7-10, 2020. For the first time, in its 52-year history, CES, will house an Indian pavilion, India Tech Park, launched by Motwani Jadeja Foundation. "CES is the biggest platform for a technology company and startups. Of late, automotive participation has become big at the event with the sector becoming more technology-centric, as against earlier times, when CES was more to do with technology in gadgets," explains Gupta, whose Strom Motors is among the seven startups from India, handpicked by Motwani Jadeja Foundation.
"As part of Motwani Jadeja Foundation pavilion, we will get a huge opportunity to present our technology at a world stage. We have lined up meetings with investors there, and it would open up a lot of doors for us," says Gupta, stating that participation at the event would provide them the opportunity to evaluate reaction at an international level for Strom-R3 and also prepare for their global plans.
While India is its home market, Gupta, plans to take Strom-R3 to other markets as well, including Europe, Latin American and Africa by 2022-2023. " There is a demand for micro-mobility solutions in these markets. We are talking to some international players in EU and Latin America, and we will send the car as CKD kits and sell there," says Gupta.
In India, Strom-R3, will first be made available in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane. There will be 500-1000 cars on the shelves as part of the first lot and this will be followed by other cities such as Pune, Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru by the end of 2021. The pre-bookings open around February 2020. The Company plans to set up experience centers at major cities to market the car in addition to shopping malls, office complexes and even driving down the car down to your residence.
While many see the Strom-R3, as yet another effort in the EV space, Gupta, explains his product further. "We do not want to position it as just another EV, but make the Indian market and the world believe that a three-wheeler personal mobility car with reverse trike technology is a possibility."
Strom-R3 is built on IoT-based fundamentals and it is this innovative technology and uniqueness that the company will present at CES2020. While the guests there may not have the luxury to sit in or drive the car, 3D models and user dashboard displays will be presented at the pavilion. Some of the features of the car which include its advanced powertrain management for longer battery life and user-friendly infotainment features such as voice and gesture control along with app remote connectivity will be on display there.
Gupta explains how most manufacturers today, cater to source level control, wherein, on overheating, the battery cuts off during the drive, thereby endangering the driver as power to the vehicle is cut off. The Strom-R3, will come with load management control, which will not just actively track the functioning of the car, but will also send prior alerts of any part failure or overheating, he says. "We will actively track the functioning of brake pads and all moving parts of the vehicle, cooling fans and battery included. The functioning of the battery is looked at closely. The user and temperature patterns of your car battery will be looked at in real-time," says Gupta.
He explains further. For instance, Strom-R3 is running in peak summers of Nagpur with soaring temperatures of 50 degrees Celsius. The car's intelligence system will calculate the acceleration versus the battery heating (outside cooling system control) and change the characteristics of the motor. "We control the motor controller and acceleration rates on it. There are throttle graphics that motor controllers have that be changed in real-time. This will affect your ability to accelerate fast in high temperatures and will also lock your top speed," he says. Nissan Leaf boasts this feature, but not many companies in India provide it, says Gupta. "This feature prevents you from permanently damaging your car battery and ending up in complete breakdown or fire."
Strom-R3 also comes with three touch screens which can be personalized according to the user’s requirements. You can have the screens display the data on a dashboard or even your favourite theme picture. "We do not want our drivers to take their eyes off the road when they use the touch screen, so, what we have in the car is ‘Gesture Recognition.’ Swiping ‘M’ pattern on the screen, the car understands that it needs to display maps, similarly, a swipe up means an increase in the volume and a double-tap means mute,” says Gupta.
Strom-R3 also puts the IoT based data into actionable items instead of presenting them as simple graphs that mean nothing to a consumer. "An average consumer today, is looking for insights and they want to know if it is time for a replacement or if the car is 5000 kms away from replacement. We provide it through our technology," says Gupta.
Unlike many who present the data collected in percentages, Strom-R3 has an elaborate diagnostic dashboard that records data in real-time when you start your car and its app on the phone. The data is presented in colour schemes of green, orange and red. Red means immediate repair or replacement, it gives further details of the service center. Orange tells you that you need repair or replacement in the next 100kms and green means that everything is fine with the car. That’s not all, the car also collects terrain data on a real-time basis using Google maps and matches it to road conditions!
Queried on whether data collected by each car will be shared, Gupta, says that Strom Motors has been approached by a few government agencies for it. Strom Motors also plans to create maps for terrains and make it available to the public, besides just the car owners.
However, Gupta points out that Strom Motors follows industry norms on data anonymization. "It is your choice to share data with us. Data lives on your car and phone app, and if you want to share it with the company then it is optional for you. However, we would encourage Strom-R3 users to share it, to experience the benefits of the car’s features, especially terrain data and parts data," he says.
A recent consumer survey indicated that 35% of the car buyers are interested in buying an EV and that was good news for them. "We set ourselves the target of 200 km range to see what we can do. Our study indicated that the average occupancy in India is 1.6 people that meant 95% times, it was either you or one more person in the car. This is where we saw the need for a personal mobility solution and started tests on the three-wheeler reverse trike technology platform that handles the differential issues well and is much lighter. The top-notch powertrain on a rigid and light chassis have resulted in an exciting automobile with zero emissions. It is as comfortable as a hatchback, " says Gupta.
Strom-R3 is a two-seater, automatic, boasting a swappable battery. Built with high tensile steel, it has a kerb weight of 550 kgs and which has “resulted in extremely high efficiency and a zippy driving experience,” says Gupta. “More weight means more energy required that results in a bigger battery, pushing the costs even higher. On an average, Strom-R3 requires three times smaller battery to travel the same distance as compared to other EV hatchbacks or sedans in the market.
Expected to be priced between INR. 4-5 lakh, Strom-R3, will be available in three variants which will be defined according to the battery packs – 120, 160 and 200 kms. " Typically, the entire floor of the car is a battery pack. However, our battery packs are small and placed in front of the car. This makes swapping of the battery possible and an extra benefit for the fleet operators who will have no run-out time on their cars," adds Gupta, who believes that Strom-R3 will attract much interest from fleet owners further stating that the Indian market will develop city-centric battery hubs for EVs.
In terms of battery life, Gupta explains that on an EV it is five years, and 10 years in the second life on a stationary application such as mobile application towers, UPS systems in hospitals and server rooms in offices. "Since the batteries on Strom-R3 are 48V, they are an easy replacement over lead-acid batteries in the aforementioned places." The company is already in talks with UPS space for a second lifetime for batteries.
Strom Motors also has plans to provide battery leasing option on its cars, wherein the buyers just buy the car and not the battery. "They can choose and put a battery from Sun Mobility or Exicom on their Strom-R3." The company also plans to introduce semi self-driven cars in India by 2021-22 and also deploy the feature on the cars sold before it. "The semi self-driven cars will be apt for city bumper to bumper traffic. The technology will enable the car to follow the car in front of it at 25 km/hr or less speed at the push of a button," explains Gupta.
Talking about the charging infrastructure for EVs, Gupta has a different take on it. He feels public charging is not the solution for India. Instead, charging at your home, in your building or workplace is what would prompt faster adaption of electric mobility. At the building, "we can pull a wire from your electric meter to your parking lot and you can plug-in there every night to be ready the next day with a full charge." In Maharashtra, one can apply for a separate meter for EVs as well, he says.
Gupta’s excitement at being a startup from India, where brand loyalty is not much as compared to a matured market is evident. Here, people are ready to try new things that offer better features at a competitive price. "It provides a wider playing ground every time you move price and features. Startups will come and disrupt the market with tech-driven solutions. That is what we are here for, R3- Reimagine, Redefine, Redesign," he says.
(The writer is an Independent Business Journalist and can be reached at bhanot.shweta@gmail.com)
